Sewer Utility System

[Audio] The 2023 state of the City of Saint Paul Sewer Utility System..

[Audio] The City of Saint Paul owns and operates about 806 miles of sanitary sewers and 455 miles of storm sewers. With the oldest sewer on record dating back to 1856, the average age of Saint Paul's sanitary sewer system is fast approaching 100 years. To address this aging sewer infrastructure, the Sewer Utility has lined more than 280 miles of sewers since 1991. The lining technology was chosen because it is as effective is restoring structural integrity while being cost effective and almost 100% less disruptive. The City of Saint Paul sanitary and storm sewer systems can be roughly divided into two main groups of shallow and deep sewers. Shallow sewers are typically less than 15-feet deep while deep sewers consist of the tunnel systems that can be over 100-feet deep. As you might guess, the cost of maintaining the deep sewers is substantially higher than the cost of maintaining the shallow ones. The tunnel systems make up about 22% of the city's sanitary and storm sewer systems. The city's sewer systems do not only consist of pipes and manholes; they include 31 lift stations, 97 stormwater outfalls, and 29 stormwater detention ponds..

[Audio] Unlike many other cities around the country, Saint Paul has a sanitary sewer system fully separated from its storm sewer system. What this means is that sewage from buildings is not conveyed to the river but rather to the wastewater treatment plant, while rainwater from the roofs of the same buildings is conveyed to the river..

[Audio] To address potential flooding in low lying areas of Saint Paul, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) constructed a levee/floodwall system in the 1960s, and the system was upgraded in the 1990s. With the rather high river water levels we have experienced in the past few years, it is critical that this levee/floodwall system be given a top maintenance and upgrade priority..

[Audio] In 2019, Saint Paul adopted a Climate Action & Resilience Plan, and in 2021, Saint Paul was recognized as one of 95 cities worldwide on the A List of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) that considered Saint Paul's ambition, leadership, and transparency on climate action with the goals of achieving carbon neutrality citywide by 2050 and cutting city operation emissions in half by 2030.

[Audio] The Sewer Utility closely keeps up with the recommendations of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) of the United States and currently has its lift stations monitored 24/7 and its software systems monitored by the city's Office of Technology and Communications (OTC)..

[Audio] These are the 2023 Sewer Utility projects with a total cost of $18,904,330. Let's take a closer look at them by understanding their specific goals..

[Audio] The goal of the sewer rehabilitation project is to identify and rehabilitate sewer infrastructure throughout the city. The Sewer Utility has a program to clean and inspect the sanitary and storm sewer systems on a ten-year cycle. A supporting objective of this goal is to improve the drainage system of the city's sewer system to minimize the damage caused by backups due to roots or debris accumulated in the pipes or due to collapsed pipes. Furthermore, this program helps in evaluating pipes and their structural conditions so that the Sewer Utility can schedule any necessary maintenance, repair, or replacement..

[Audio] The sewer repair project takes advantage of ongoing city, county, and state projects to address needed sewer repairs and upgrades within the project areas. This results in a considerable financial savings because the Sewer Utility does not have to pay for the associated excavation and restoration costs that are covered by the project owners..

[Audio] The sewer repair project addresses problems that are identified during the sewer rehab project but cannot be corrected through rehabilitation. The Sewer Utility also uses the citywide project to address isolated minor sewer issues identified at various locations across the city. The approach is to combine these minor sewer repairs to a reasonable number and then fund them under one project..

[Audio] The goal of the tunnel rehab project is to address the erosion and fracture that results on the exposed sandstone walls of city sewer tunnels. Inspections have revealed that even in lined storm tunnels, cracks have allowed storm water under pressure to erode the stone behind the concrete lining compromising the integrity of the tunnel. It is cheaper and safer to repair the tunnels now rather than wait until major collapses occur..

[Audio] Water quality improvements are used to meet the Capital Regions and Ramsey-Washington Districts requirements for constructing storm water management facilities during city projects, assist city staff in implementing watershed rules, monitor performance of constructed storm water management facilities, and to review the watershed districts rules and propose changes that are based on monitored field performance..

[Audio] The objective of the water street sanitary capacity improvement project is to address sanitary sewer system capacity issues of the westside area necessitated by developments in the area. The project involves studies to determine the available capacity and implementation of measures to meet additional capacity needs generated by developments in the area..

[Audio] To ensure that the city's sanitary and storm sewer systems keep functioning at an acceptable level of service during the next 5 years, the plan is to invest $12,300,000 yearly on maintenance and upgrades as outlined in the table above. Thank you..